Birdcage
by Skywatcher27
Summary: It's been 1 year since CJ left and tensions are rising between the humans and the Prawn. A 'failed' experiment has been sent in to live amongst the Prawn to try and soothe the anger, while at the same time, find out what they will do once CJ returns.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

She simply sat there, oblivious to the world, oblivious to what the scientist and researchers where trying to get her to do. She didn't want to please them today, she was not a trained animal, and her stubborn nature was going to prove that. The MNU were just stupid to think that she was simply going to comply after forcefully trying to tame her.

Well, nope. Not gonna happen any time soon. The USA had handed her off for a reason, and this was it. She wasn't going to kill them. Sure that's what she was designed to do, what her sole purpose in life was supposed to be. Ever since she was little, she was supposed to hate the nonhumans, just like her brothers and sisters did.

But she didn't. She simply didn't. She felt some sort of compassion to the nonhumans, and could relate to them slightly. She had always been the outcast, even before her parents had died. Then the scientists came asking for any kids that had no family that wanted them, had nowhere to go, around her age. So she was taken. She felt happy, finally leaving that dreary orphanage where everyone purposely made things even more difficult for her.

She couldn't help that she was blind, for Christ's sake! She couldn't help that she had scars from the shattered glass in the accident that had claimed her parents. Everything seemed pointless after that and she retreated deeper into her shell, making her body just that; a body with no soul. The scientist had shown some kindness to her, offering to remove her scars. She agreed, enthusiastic. Wouldn't any 12 year old?

But they had done just more than take away her scars. They had done so much more. They had injected her with some sort of virus, as they called it, actually made her bones lighter and had her grow wings. _Wings._It was like she was that guy in a book she had read before, that really popular one. One of the older orphans had been talking about it, and was kind enough to read it to her. Who was that guy's name? Iggy, or something like that. It had been a long time since she had read it. She hated her wings. She didn't know a thing about them other than they were big, bulky and let her fly at insanely fast speed. During the training she actually had come close at breaking the speed of sound, but was ordered not to.

She was drawn out of her thoughts the second that she was hit. Hard enough to make her head jerk sideways. Her cheek was smarting, and she could feel the heat rolling off of the area in angry waves.

"Subject 297, respond to the question!" a frustrated male voice screamed at her. The room had gone deathly silent, and she could picture all the other people in the room staring at the man who had slapped her in shock. She dimly remembered that they had been asking her as of why she would not kill the prawns.

"They prefer to call themselves Poleepkwa." She corrected emotionlessly. She then shifted her head, staring at the man with her sightless eyes. "How much do you know about the American Revolution?"

A pause. He was probably confused by her question. "Excuse me?"

"How much." She said slowly, like speaking to a child. "Do you know. About the American Revolution?

"Enough to get me through a history course." He replied snobbishly.

"Then are you familiar with the statement 'No Taxation, without Representation'?"

"Where are you going with this?" he was suspicious now. Good. She wasn't some stupid animal, and she wasn't going to be treated like it.

"It means that the colonists where not going to pay the taxes British Parliament had set down because they did not have a colonial representative in Parliament. They wanted a say in the matters. And that was unfair because they had to live in England to be elected into Parliament. Where I am going with this, is that I want a say in the matters. And my say is this: I'm not killing anyone, or anything for that matter, without a good enough reason to. And that reason has to be witnessed by me. Not you, not a soldier, not a civilian, but me. And only then, if I believe that a good enough reason to kill a living breathing creature, I will kill that creature without hesitation. And nothing you will do or say will change that. Understand?"

She said this in a calm, collected demeanor, and she could feel the shock and surprise radiating off of the people in the room.

"Bravo, Riley."

Her head snapped in the direction of the words. She knew who it was instantly, the deep regal voice that literally commanded your attention, and the fact that he was the only one that used her real name.

"Dr. Payne." She returned the greeting. It was cold, yes, but that was how they treated each other. They weren't friends. They were simply the creator and the creature.

"Excellent speech, very informative, and to the point. If that is how you feel, then I will allow you." His voice moved closer to her, until it was directly in front of her.

"Pardon?" she replied, confused.

"You will live in isolation; with no contact from the laboratory or any of the experiment subjects; for one whole year, among the prawn. You will be on your own, and cannot come crawling back to use any time before that year is up. Understand?"

"Yes." She said flatly, but inside her, she was a mixture of disbelief, excitement, and confusion. She knew Dr. Payne was high up there, but was he seriously allowed to do this without any consequences?

"All we shall do for you is: provide a place for you to stay, with some food that will last you for about a week. Everything else will be left up to you. Do you agree to these terms?"

She was suspicious. This seemed too… thought out. Like they knew this was going to happen. "Why?"

"Leave." Dr. Payne commanded to the others still in the room. There was shuffling, the sound of a door opening and shutting, signaling that they were alone. He knelt down to her level, his voice now coming directly in front of her face.

"Riley, my dear, you are different. You always have been. Others would have lapped this offer up, no questions asked, just be free. But you are smart enough to question it. We need somebody on the inside, to understand them, to know what's going on. That ship just left, and everybody is preparing for the worst. It's been one year in a few weeks. We need somebody smart enough, and can take care of themselves, and understand will happen. The prawns have the best idea about what's going to happen, but they aren't talking."

"You want me to spy." She clarified.

"Yes." was the answer. She was torn. She did want to leave, to meet the Poleepkwa, to learn about them. But to spy on them?

"You will not bother me at all, correct?" she questioned, determined to find a loophole.

"Yes."

"I will give you all of my information that I will collect at the end of the year, correct?"

"Yes."

"I accept." She found it. "Provided that you do not put a tracker on me. I refuse to be an animal, and that not only you, but anybody in this building or anything related to this building bother me. I will allow the MNU only to come because that is their job to do daily rounds and so on, but they will not pester me for information. That's my arrangement." She so could do this. You don't get by 4 years in an orphanage without picking up some habits.

"Riley," she could hear the weary amusement in Dr. Payne's voice. "If we didn't need this information so badly, I would leave here so fast, there would be smoke. You make deals like a lawyer."

She smiled one thing she had not done in a long time. "I would know; my parents were lawyers." She turned serious.

"When do I leave?"

***dramatic music***

**hello! um i'm a little nervous about this, because this is actually my first story ever on this website. if you dont like it, i'm pretty sure that this will get better as i continue it, but dont freak out if i randomly vanish for a while. (real life sucks. alot.) i feel confident in this story, and, with luck, this will be my first ever story to finish. Ah, i'd bette shut up now, so if you'd like to give me any advice, i would love to hear from you.**

**~Sky**


	2. Chapter 2

She was supposed to leave in about two weeks. That would give them enough time to set up where she would be living and give them time to make sure that she was "up to standards for this little escapade." That quote came directly from one of the scientist that had been examining her that day. She was then shooed away with some choice words by Dr. Payne.

Anyways, he was asking her to stretch her wings out to full length, because they wanted to compare the measurements when she came back. She did so, and silence filled the room.

"Riley." Dr. Payne started. Oh, she knew that tone. He was going to ask her something that he knew she wouldn't like to do. "Would you like to participate in one final experiment?"

Her suspicion set in immediately. "Depends." She heard herself say before she could stop herself.

"It will help restore your sight." Oh, he knew what she wanted. She wanted to see again, to drink in the details of everything around her so badly. She couldn't say no, and he knew it.

"Will it hurt like my wings did?" they had hurt like hell when they had started to sprout. Whenever she thought about it, the area around her wings started to hurt.

"We believe it won't hurt as much as your wings did." She hated vague answers like that; one of her roommates in her cell had gotten an answer like that, and it had actually hurt worse that his own mutation.

She didn't reply, but instead went over her options, either being able to see or not. '_URGH! They have me trapped!' _she growled in her mind.

"What is a falcon without eyes to find its prey?" Dr. Payne spoke again, sensing her reluctance. That's what clinched it. She knew that she couldn't say no. there was no way around it.

"Ok." She admitted reluctantly.

"Outstanding!" his voice had moved, and now it was directly in front of her. She held out her hand with the palm up and he grasped it, pulling slightly to signal for her to follow. They had come to a silent agreement year ago; she would not accept help unless _she _asked for it. For those that just assumed she needed help…that last one she actually put in the hospital.

He lead her to a different room; she was never given enough time to learn the layout of the building; and she was gently, but firmly pushed down onto a cot. She frowned; this was different from normal procedures.

"This is a surgery, not a shot, this time. We actually need to go in, reconnect the nerve endings that have been damaged, and then we have to do some other stuff that if I told you, you'd fall asleep." Dr. Payne explained. He then grabbed her hand and placed a cup in it, and she reflectively curled her fingers around it. "Drink that please, and then tell me when you're ready."

She brought the cup toward her face, and sniffed experimentally. This was the stuff that knocked you out for a _long _time.

'_And it tastes nasty' _she thought to herself, wrinkling her nose at the taste. She then stood, holding the cup out in front of her, signaling that she was ready. The cup was removed from her hand.

"Alright, I'm going to leave you in the hands of the nurses to get you ready, M'kay? Whatever you do, do not, absolutely _do not _take three consecutive deep breaths, ok? That stuff will knock you out faster than a light." Dr. Payne explained, his voice slowly fading, and she heard shuffling and a door opening and closing, which told her that Dr. Payne had left, and that the nurses had entered the room.

"M'kay sweetheart, I'm gonna help you get changed, so don't freak out if I touch you unexpectedly, 'kay?" a female voice, bright and cheerful filled the room. She tensed then forced herself to relax.

"'Kay…" she answered softly, and flinched when she felt her clothes being stripped from her body by unseen hands. She let her limbs be moved like a dolls as her clothes were gently replaced by a medical dress.

She then was lead out into another room, and was gently pushed down onto a soft cot, and heard a lot of people bustling around her. She surrounded herself with her thoughts and she was dimly asked to take three deep breaths. She did so, and was quickly surrounded by darkness.

He stood, watching the doctors' move around his child delicately, obeying the head doctor's orders to bring him this, to bring him that, and he worked on the girls eyes. They had to first fix them, and then he could actually begin the experiment.

It had pained him to see her fumble around each and every day. His little bird was trapped by these white walls that trapped many of his creations. But they were useless. Mindless killing machines. She was different. She didn't like the feel of blood, the rush of adrenaline when you take a life…

He shook his head, clearing his mind of such thoughts. He, like the girl, yearned to be free. But he could not ever have his chance. So he had to live his freedom through the girl.

Dr. Payne entered the room, shooing off all of the others doctors, save for the head.

'_Good.'_ The man thought, pleased with his brother. He had helped out immensely these past few years, and the proof was in the very room in front of him. He watched Dr. Payne converse for a little while, then the head doctor left, leaving Dr. Payne alone to work on his child

. '_That must mean that they have fixed the eyes enough to begin repairing them totally, and adding on a few things.' _He realized, as his brother started to inject some sort of liquid into her eyeball.

_It will take too long for her to totally heal… speed up the process…or our plans will be for nothing…_

The man moved suddenly, towards the window, and pressed a button by the side of it.

"Russell." He started, making the other man look up in surprise. Dr. Payne's eyes glued themselves to a spot where they thought he would be, and it was almost scary with his accuracy. "The new serum you invented; the one that makes things heal faster; use it on her."

His brother's eyes widened at the command. "B-But that has a 95%percent of mutating her even farther than anything we've every studied! Her body may even reject it, and this whole surgery would have been for naught, and you would have to cancel the plans to allow her freedom!" He stuttered, trying to explain to his brother.

"I don't care. Do it." was the cold reply. Dr. Russell Payne sighed, and reached for another serum, and reluctantly injected it into, and around the girl's eyes. She suddenly started to shake, looking like she was having a seizure, and Dr. Payne shouted for assistance while trying to hold her down so she would damaged, or be damaged by medical utensils. Other people rushed in, strapping her down to the bed, some shouting, others murmuring soft nothings in her ear to calm her down.

She finally settled, still breathing, still alive, and still unconscious. Dr. Payne ordered everyone to leave, and only once they did, he stalked over to the glass, and brought his fist against it. The man behind it didn't show any sign of life.

"That was too close! _Too fucking close_, you hear bastard?" he screamed at his brother. "You could have killed her! Then where would you be?"

"But she is not dead." His own voice was cold and uncaring. "She is alive, and the plan will still continue."

"Fucker." His brother hissed. "Emotionless bastard! You call her your child, yet you make her suffer like this for your own intentions!"

"I do this for the sake that she may live." He countered frostily.

"She has almost died in this place more than we can count because of you!" his brother screamed at him.

He had nothing to say, nothing to counter that. How could he? He didn't know. He thought that he was providing her life.

_He lies… your own blood lies to you… he simply wants her for himself…_

The man shook his head, trying to clear those thoughts. "Finish the job." he growled out, before angrily stalking away, leaving his brother alone with the girl.

'_Riley' _he chastised himself. _'Her name is Riley.'_

_Riley…_the voice inside him purred. _Your Riley…_


End file.
